Directs Attorney General to develop guidelines for
positive identification of suspects before release.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel

An Act concerning criminal identity theft and supplementing
Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The Legislature finds and
declares that:

a. Identity theft is one of
the fastest growing crimes nationally and in this State.

b. Identity theft is
particularly insidious to victims who often spend years after it occurred
dealing with the bureaucracy necessary to clear their good names and records.

c. To address the growing
problem of identity theft, the Legislature passed the "Identity Theft Prevention
Act,” P.L.2005, c.226 (C.56:11-44 et al.). This act focuses on identity crimes
involving the interception of personal financial data or the fraudulent
acquisition of credit cards or other financial products in another person's
name.

d. While this type of
“financial identity theft” receives much public attention, another type of
identity theft that also poses grave consequences to its victims is “criminal
identity theft.”

e. Criminal identify theft
occurs when a criminal suspect provides a law enforcement officer during an
investigation or arrest with another person’s name and personal information,
such as a driver’s license, whether valid or counterfeit, birth date, or social
security number. For example, a suspect may present to law enforcement a
relative’s driver’s license. The suspect is released, but the law enforcement
agency has the victim’s information, not the suspect’s.

f. The following negative
consequences suffered by innocent victims of criminal identity theft can be
grave:

(1) When the suspect fails to
appear in court, a bench warrant will be issued, but for the victim whose name
and personal information was given, rather than the suspect. An unsuspecting victim
may be stopped for a routine traffic violation and be arrested based on the
outstanding warrant.

(2) Alternatively, the
arrestee appears in court and pleads guilty to the charge. The victims may
never know unless their driver’s license is suspended, they are subsequently
denied a license or employment, or they are terminated from employment because
their information has been included in state, and possibly, national criminal
databases.

In either case, it is the
victims who are burdened with the responsibility of establishing innocence,
clearing their name, and dealing with the significant inconvenience of
correcting their criminal records. And while victims may be successful in
clearing their criminal records, private entities who aggregate data may
continue to maintain the incorrect information necessitating further action.

g. In this State, upon arrest
for an indictable offense, adult suspects under R.S.53:1-15 and juvenile
suspects under section 2 of P.L.1982, c.79 (C.2A:4A-61) are required to provide
authorities with fingerprints. Local police departments in most municipalities
have the capability to send these fingerprints directly to the State Police to
determine whether the suspect has a prior conviction. A fingerprint match
would foil a previously convicted suspect’s attempt to pass off another
person’s personal information.

h. But detection of criminal
identity theft is more problematic when the suspect has no fingerprints on file
or is arrested for a lesser criminal offense, such as a disorderly persons
offense, or for the quasi-criminal offense of drunk driving. While local law
enforcement officers are undoubtedly taking additional steps to confirm the
identities of suspects, the Legislature finds and declares that the increase in
the number of victims of criminal identity theft necessitates an official
Statewide policy to address the problem.

2. The Attorney General shall
promulgate guidelines setting forth mandatory procedures to be followed by
local police departments to enhance their ability to positively identify
suspects before they are released. The guidelines shall be disseminated to local
police departments within 120 days of the effective date of this act.

3. This act shall take effect
immediately, but the Attorney General may take advance anticipatory
administrative action as necessary to implement this act.

STATEMENT

This bill requires the
Attorney General to promulgate guidelines setting forth mandatory procedures to
be followed by local police departments to enhance their ability to positively
identify suspects before they are released. The purpose of the guidelines is
to address the growing problem of “criminal identity theft.”

Criminal identity theft occurs
when a criminal suspect provides a law enforcement officer during an
investigation or arrest with another person’s name and personal information,
such as a driver’s license, whether valid or counterfeit, birth date, or social
security number. The suspect is released, but the law enforcement agency has
the victim’s information, not the suspect’s. As a result, unsuspecting victims
whose information has been stolen may be arrested, have their driver’s license
suspended, or be denied a professional license or employment based on a
criminal history record they didn’t know they had.